Conference Board report furthers argument higher workplace literacy means improved health and safety
The Conference Board of Canada thinks so. In presenting results from the first phase of a two-year study, it said employers can reduce accidents, injuries and downtime, along with insurance premiums, claims and fines associated with workers’ compensation boards, by improving employees’ literacy skills.
“Low literacy levels can hinder employees from understanding how to do a job safely and understanding their right to refuse unsafe work,” said Alison Campbell, senior research associate for organizational effectiveness and learning at the Conference Board.
There is often a threshold required for safe job performance, particularly with potentially dangerous jobs such as those involving complex machinery and tools or hazardous substances. But “the stage is set for injuries and illness when these jobs are performed by workers with low literacy skills,” said the report, All Signs Point to Yes: Literacy’s Impact on Workplace Health and Safety.
However, only two per cent of organizational training, learning and development budgets are spent on literacy and basic skills upgrading, and there is an inverse relationship between industries requiring a high level of health and safety and investment in literacy skills, said the report.
There is no doubt a safe worker is one who can understand signs, said Louise Nichol, president of Winnipeg-based OARS Training.
“It shouldn’t be rocket science,” she said. “How can you do workplace hazardous material information training when (employees) can’t read or write English? It’s an employer’s responsibility to provide safety. (But) they just want to hire people with the skills to get the job done.”
Safety information often only in written form
And a study from the Ontario Public Health Association found much of the information about occupational health and safety is available only in written form.
“The stigma of low literacy skills is more likely to prompt workers to keep quiet and ‘figure things out for themselves,’ exposing themselves and others to unnecessary danger,” said the association’s report.
But a lot of people who have lower levels of literacy end up in more dangerous occupations, said Margaret Eaton, president of Toronto-based ABC Canada Literacy Foundation. Jobs in trucking, manufacturing or construction hold high appeal because the literacy requirements are low.
“These are more physical jobs as opposed to intellectual jobs and those are industries with high levels of accidents,” she said. “You can imagine how things like proper labeling would be an issue around literacy and making sure people aren’t careless with labeling. Or reading instructions in a manual for operating equipment, especially as equipment changes.”
Attempting to convey complex information, such as the chemical properties of hazardous materials, cannot be easily conveyed through simple pictures or words. And even oral directions and explanations on health and safety are often not understood by those with low literacy skills, said Campbell.
“Visuals are certainly a step in the right direction; however, there are limitations because of the complexity of health and safety information. It’s not always amenable to visual representation, sometimes it needs to be more technical,” she said.
Awareness is also a challenge among employers and employees. Many adults are overconfident about their literacy skills and often don’t care about their employers’ views on low literacy skills and harmful impacts, said the report.
An International Adult Literacy Survey, in assessing levels in Canada, found more than one-half of working-age adults with the lowest level of literacy skills believe their skills are good or excellent. Furthermore, skilled craft workers, machine operators and assemblers, and agriculture or primary workers have literacy levels below the level required for coping with the demands of everyday life and work.
“These workers are potentially at risk because they are unable to read and understand machinery operating instructions, safety precautions, equipment and repair manuals, first-aid instructions or organizational policies on workplace health and safety,” said the report. “They may be unable to leave a warning note for the next shift worker regarding a damaged machine or part. And they may be reluctant to inform a supervisor that they cannot understand written work area or end-of-shift cleanup procedures. Low literacy skills potentially put workers and their co-workers in harm’s way and increase the likelihood of work stoppages due to accidents or errors.”
Individuals go to great lengths to hide low literacy or illiteracy, either because they’re afraid to lose their jobs or they’re embarrassed, said Campbell.
“With literacy, there’s a lot of stigma attached,” she said. “People develop very good coping mechanisms and get by. They don’t even recognize they lack skills.”
On the other hand, many employers are oblivious to the need for literacy skills upgrading. And addressing the issue is a daunting endeavour, with skill-level assessments, appropriate programming, budgets and training.
“Sometimes employers are reluctant to get involved, they’re busy and it’s not the core business, especially for smaller employers. They have to find the time, the effort, the money to do it,” said Campbell.
“Some say it falls under the prerogative of the public education system and their job is to employ people, not teach them what they should have learned in school.”
Many variables involvedto gauge impact
While the Conference Board report doesn’t actually state there is a link between literacy and safety, it presents facts that lead in that specific direction, said Campbell.
“I haven’t had anybody say it doesn’t make sense. Everyone said it’s a no-brainer, but it’s hard to track and very rarely tracked.”
The industry has looked at turnover statistics to try and establish the relationship between new workers and problems with workers’ compensation costs. But the problem is there are too many variables to actually gauge the impact of literacy, said Nichol.
“What’s especially tricky is the different sectors have different levels of health and safety issues and then tying it right back to literacy,” said Eaton. “There are so many factors involved in the case of having an accident that it’s tough to look at.”
Greater evidence or “force” should show employers they can address health and safety issues by looking at literacy, said Campbell, so the next step will be to do a national survey and case studies to find the hard evidence. And the Conference Board will focus on those industries that have higher health and safety incident reporting, to make the biggest impact.
